How Users Consider Web Tracking When Seeking Health Information Online

TL;DR

This study explores how Canadian health information seekers understand and manage web tracking, revealing gaps in privacy awareness and suggesting a shift in privacy education focus.

Contribution

It provides insights into users' privacy protection behaviors and understanding regarding web tracking in health information seeking contexts.

Findings

Users have limited initiative in protecting privacy online.

Many users lack accurate understanding of web tracking mechanisms.

Privacy awareness efforts should focus on how data is collected.

Abstract

Health information websites offer instantaneous access to information, but have important privacy implications as they can associate a visitor with specific medical conditions. We interviewed 35 residents of Canada to better understand whether and how online health information seekers exercise three potential means of protection against surveillance: website selection, privacy-enhancing technologies, and self-censorship, as well as their understanding of web tracking. Our findings reveal how users' limited initiative and effectiveness in protecting their privacy could be associated with a missing or inaccurate understanding of how implicit data collection by third parties takes place on the web, and who collects the data. We conclude that to help health information seekers better protect their online privacy, we may need to shift privacy awareness efforts from what information is collected to how it is collected.